Time Management - Pickle Jar Theory

What is the Pickle Jar Theory?

The Pickle Jar Theory is a time management solution that is simple and actually works.

The Pickle Jar theory is basically based on the idea that time, like a pickle jar, time is limited. Our life is the jar and what is in it, the volume or space is limited.

 Every day, everyone fills out time with important, less important and unimportant activities. The Pickle Jar Theory serves as a visual figurative expression, to determine what is the important and what is not important. It helps you to set your priorities for daily life and plan tasks in such a way, that you have time to spare instead of too few hours in the day.

This Theory is popular for time management. The Theory is about a big glass pickle jar that is filled with a large number of fist-sized rocks, pebbles and a lot of sand.

Rocks, Pebbles and Sand

Rocks, pebble and sand have a purpose in the Pickle Jar Theory. The pickle jar itself represents our daily life, what keeps us engage and how we divide our time and activates during the day. The Pickle Jar Theory helps you visualize your priorities, as well as the amount and size of tasks that can be done realistically on a given day. There are no charts or massive organizers to haul around. It’s just a simple technique that helps you get the work done with less stress.

The sand – it represents all the phone calls, emails, social media notifications and other disrupting elements.

The pebbles- it metaphorically stands for the jobs we’re confronted with every day and that fill our diaries.

The rocks- it represent the important tasks in our daily lives. There’ll be serious consequences if we fail to do the latter tasks.

How does it work?

To plan your day, imagine a large empty pickle jar.

1) Take three or four large rocks and add them to the jar.

2) Now take a small handful of pebbles and toss them in, jiggling it a bit to make them fit.

3) Next, add a handful of sand.

4) Now fill the remaining space in the jar with water.

T­here’s a lot of stuff in your jar. But it’s not just the objects; it’s the order and volume of each item. If you were to put the water and sand in first, and then your pebbles, very few of the large rocks would fit. Or if you tried to just put in 10 large rocks, they’d break the jar.

Such is the case with planning your day.

Identify three or four high priority tasks that must get done (the rocks), plus a number of smaller, less priority tasks such as emails, follow-ups, etc. (the pebbles), as well as everyday routine stuff (the sand). And remember that your jar should contain room for family and personal time (the water).

Why the Pickle Jar Metaphor Works

Y­our day has a finite amount of time in it, just as the jar has room for only so many rocks on a given day. Rocks (high priority) are always put in the jar first, followed by lower priorities and everyday stuff. Your day should be designed around the way your pickle jar was filled.

The “Pickle Jar Theory “helps you take control of your day by learning to make commitments to yourself—commitments you keep. In our busy lives, there are always people (and it tends to be the same people over and over) who will urgently need to put a couple of new rocks in your jar. “Dropping everything” throughout the course of the day to handle unexpected tasks can quickly devastate your overall productivity.

How Pickle Jar Theory help us

Better Division

To better plan the different tasks in our daily lives with their changing urgency and importance, the pickle jar is filled again. We’re using the same size jar, the same amount of sand, pebbles and rocks. Only order is arranged according to its importance.

First, the rocks (most important tasks) are put into the jar; these highly responsible tasks really need to get finished and all other tasks will be planned around it.

Now it is the pebbles(less important task)’s turn. These represent tasks that can possibly be done by others or can simply wait.

Finally, we add the sand (unimportant tasks); all the emails, chats, phone calls and WhatsApp messages, twitter messages and Facebook disappear into the jar and find their way between the rocks and pebbles. And as it turns out; thanks to the better division of tasks, all ingredients now easily fit in the pickle jar.

Schedule

The Pickle Jar Theory provides deep understanding of our schedule and offers opportunities to make an effort every day to put our most important tasks at the top of the list every day. Only then does it get easier to handle and actually meet deadlines. The deep understanding becomes even clearer by working with to-do lists. By carefully considering what tasks still need to be done in advance, you will be able to treat the most important tasks as ‘rocks’ and put them on your list.

Listing Tasks

The most difficult part about task lists is preparing a solid and accurate estimation of the time it will take. Sometimes people tend to plan an hour for a job that might take two hours. That’s why it’s a good idea to include an accurate time estimate when you are listing a top-down task / To-Do List.

Next Step, Prioritize the tasks in an order according to its importance to ensure that you will be able to actually carry out these ‘rocks’. In addition, it’s a good idea to have a buffer for the pebbles and sand. So not to plan more than 6 hours for an 8-hour working day